Outdoor lighting provides a number of practical and aesthetic benefits for buildings and homes and for garden areas including lawns, walkways, and pool facilities. Among the practical benefits are safety for walking and security, by the lighting of dark spots and shadows around buildings and homes and lighting walkways, steps, and obstacles. Automatic and timed operation of lighting provides an "at-home" appearance for increased security.
Outdoor lighting also provides important aesthetic benefits. These include making visible the beauty and charm of a home after dark. Features of a home's exterior may be highlighted and landscape areas may be accented. For example, walkways and doors can be illuminated as well as
Various lighting techniques are used for placement of a lamp fixture for lighting of buildings and garden areas, including downlighting, uplighting, and backlighting. These terms describe the relationship between the lamp fixture and the objects to be illuminated. For example, downlighting places the lamp fixture above the objects to be illuminated. Further, various styles of lamp fixtures are available, including fixtures with lamps having wide beams of light, narrow accent lights, flood lights for broad general illumination of areas, and spot lights for focusing attention to a feature for highlighting.
One popular mechanism for outdoor lighting systems involves the use of low-voltage lighting having a transformer that supplies electric current at about 12 volts direct current. Low voltage lighting systems are generally safer than high voltage systems, such as one using 120 volts AC. Wiring for low voltage systems can be placed on the ground, preferably buried at shallow depths, or looped through shrubbery and trees. In contrast, high voltage systems require closed conduits, and often require technical expertise to design and install.
Low voltage systems conventionally have a transformer that changes the 120 volt power to 12 volts. The transformer is typically housed in a weatherproof case and connects to an outdoor electrical socket. A cable having a pair of electrical wires attaches to the transformer. The cable is then laid on the ground along the areas to be illuminated, such as a walkway, stairs, garden areas, or side of a home. Lighting fixtures are then positioned at selected locations along the cable. Typically the lighting fixtures mount to stakes which are embedded in the ground. The lighting fixtures are then connected to the cable for electrical communication with the transformer. The cable is then preferably buried shallowly in the ground, but typically no additional conduit is necessary as would be required for 120 volt systems. If desired, a lighting fixture in a low-voltage lighting system may be disconnected from the cable, repositioned, and reconnected. While the original pierced holes in the cable may be wrapped with a tape, it is not necessary to do so.
Various connectors are used to attach wires from the lighting fixtures to the cable. One known connector uses a pair of clips that matingly engage each other while wrapping around the cable. The-clips each include a pointed barb that connects with one of the wires from the lighting fixture. The barbs pierce the cable as the clips are pushed together into engagement. Joining the clips pushes the barbs into electrical communication with the wires in the cable. Another type of connector has a channel defined by flanges, and pointed barbs extend from a surface of the channel between the flanges. The flanges define a recess that slidingly receives a pressure plate which bears forcibly against the cable in the channel for piercing by the barbs to establish electrical communication.
While successful for connecting lighting fixtures to the electrical cable, these connectors have drawbacks that limit their usefulness. Often, some of the lighting fixtures are re-positioned until the installer is satisfied with the illumination. Relocation of lighting fixtures requires removal and reinstallation of the connectors. The clip connector is however not readily separable for relocation. Also, the slideable connector is awkward to use and requires effort and force to slide the pressure plate laterally in the recess in order to exert pressure against the cable. Such connector may be difficult for persons not dexterous with small articles.
Therefore, there remains a need in the art for an improved connector for establishing electrical communication between low-voltage lamps and electrical cables connected with a source of low voltage electricity.